Question: My DPS is MIA am I SOL

Each week at The Hunting Lodge,  Brigwyn will take one of your questions submitted via email, twitter or in a comment here or The Hunting Lodge Forums and answer them here.  Pretty much no topic is off limits, well almost.  Keep it clean, interesting and fun, and maybe it’ll be answered here.  And if not, well I’m usually pretty good at getting back to you.

I got this question from @Legacyofheroes the over on Twitter. It seems Legacy is having the same issue from a lot of other people, how to increase you DPS.

question for ya dude, my hunter pushes out pretty crappy dps, anyway I can put out more if so how? -@Legacyofheroes

I get asked this a ton of times from people. And I always find it difficult to answer this without making personal recommendations or go to the other extreme and make it to general and not very helpful.

When I say I in the past I have offered to create custom profiles for players. (If you haven’t gotten yours yet, hold tight I’m working on them.) What I mean is I take your current Armory and go through it and note items like your Hit Rating, Talent spec, Pet and Pet specs, Enchants, and Gems. These are usually enough for you to see a jump in DPS.

Another way you can get some good advice is over at The Hunting Lodge Forums. If you go to the Spec and Gear Advice forum you are sure to get similar advice from some of the greatest end game Hunters I know. Be patient though, sometimes it might make a few days, but typically you’ll get an answer.

Along these lines, I really started thinking it might be better to give you the tools and knowledge of where to go and do this yourself, rather than just give individual advice.

So here’s a guide on how to create your own profile.

1. Know the Hit Caps and Hit Rating Conversions. The current Base Hit Cap is 8% or 263. 1% Hit = 32.79 Hit Rating.
2. Understand how the different game stats and Hunter class mechanics affect your player. If you’re not really sure you can check out the stat conversions here.
3. Use The Hunter DPS Spreadsheet by Wertez. This is a great modeling tool that can show you how changes to gear and gear enhancements affect your DPS. If you don’t have MS Excel then check out the new Online Hunter DPS Analyzer by Zeherah.
4. Lootrank is your friend. Lootrank is a great site to help you identify gear upgrades.
5. Know your Shot Priority. Each spec has its own prioritized shot rotation.
6. No shot rotation Macros! That’s right forget the shot rotation macros. I can’t stress this enough. If your looking to increase your DPS do NOT try and make your shot priority into a /castsequence or other type of shot rotation macro. It just doesn’t really work as well any more.
7. Read Hunter related blogs and forums see what is working for Hunters that have a similar playstyle and guild make up. (Shameless plug incoming) Read my column, Scattered Shots, on WoW.com, or head over and heck out my Complete Blog Roll for a list of Hunter related resources.  And last but not least check out The Twisted Nether Big List of Blogs for another great resource.
8. Finally, play the spec that you enjoy. See many Hunters will try to play the best ever min/max spec but for one reason or another it just doesn’t work for them. Playing the spec you enjoy and understand will usually result in a DPS increase.

There you have it. If you follow these guide, your sure to see in increase in your DPS.